Ilana Raviv
Encyclopedia
Overview
Ilana Raviv was born in 1945 in Tel Aviv, Palestine and studied art at the Art Students League of New YorkArt Students League of New York
The Art Students League of New York is an art school located on West 57th Street in New York City. The League has historically been known for its broad appeal to both amateurs and professional artists, and has maintained for over 130 years a tradition of offering reasonably priced classes on a...
. Among her teachers were: Roberto Delamonica, Bruce Dorfman and Knox Martin
Knox Martin
Knox Martin is an American painter, sculptor and muralist.Born in 1923 in Barranquilla, Colombia, he studied at the Art Students League of New York from 1946 till 1950. He is one of the leading members of New York School - a group of artists and writers. He lives and works in New York City."Art is...
.
Her work encompasses different media, including paintings, drawings, etchings, tapestries and ceramics. Raviv’s work has been described as “synthetic realism” (a term coined by the American Master Painter Knox Martin
Knox Martin
Knox Martin is an American painter, sculptor and muralist.Born in 1923 in Barranquilla, Colombia, he studied at the Art Students League of New York from 1946 till 1950. He is one of the leading members of New York School - a group of artists and writers. He lives and works in New York City."Art is...
),
which makes use of extreme metaphors, and has earned enthusiastically favorable reviews worldwide.
Much of Raviv's work focuses on femininity and relations between the sexes. The artist describes her work as “a different version of reality, a metaphor which creates and shapes an artificial life on canvas, a variety of flat designs and contrasts of shapes which create different levels of reality". Raviv’s work can be found in various museums and galleries as well as in private and corporate collections around the world, including the State Russian Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia, the permanent collection of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum is the United States' official memorial to the Holocaust. Adjacent to the National Mall in Washington, D.C., the USHMM provides for the documentation, study, and interpretation of Holocaust history...
in Washington DC, as well as at the International Convention Center (Jerusalem)
International Convention Center (Jerusalem)
The International Convention Centre , commonly known as Binyenei HaUma , is a concert hall and conventional center in Giv'at Ram in Jerusalem, Israel. It is the largest convention center in the Middle East...
, where her painting “The Sukkah of Peace – A Tribute to Zachariah” (Acrylic on canvas 8 X 2.12 m) is on permanent display at the main entrance lobby. Raviv divides her time between Israel and the United States.
Art critics on Raviv’s work
Knox Martin, American Master Painter and Art Students League Instructor, formerly Professor at Yale Graduate School of Art: “The art of Ilana Raviv has the kind of perceptive rightness as its base as do a certain period of Jackson Pollock, Hals and Miro. When one says a certain period, one indicates a non-analytical flow that congeals the right moment out of fragile flight, which peaks…art which is revelation, not the illustration of a revelation.”Dr. Miriam Or, historian and art researcher: “… the construction of her art is such that the composition begets a new invention, a new pathway on the road to endless creative achievements of humankind.”
Dr. Alec Mishory, historian and art critic: “… Europa, Leda, Flora, Helen, Pandora, Scheherazade, Alice, and Godiva have never been depicted in this manner, in such a storm of colors and expressionist shapes… They proudly display their attitudes towards their spouses or show us how they conduct their personal introspection.”
Branka Berberijan, Spanish art critic: “… exciting and poetic, more of a revelation than a cold intellectual analysis. Ilana Raviv's lively artistic temperament demands large surfaces which are a real song of praise of an intuitive art that can forestall any criticism that is ‘enthusiastically and politically biased’ (Charles Baudelaire), preparing it and justifying its existence.”
Lubov Shakirova, curator of Modern Art at the State Russian Museum: “We are presenting an artist… whose works are comparable to the expressive and dramatic works of the ‘Avant-Garde Amazons' – the apocalyptic figures of Natalia Goncharova, and the cards cycle of Olga Rosnova.”
Exhibition 2007
From October 31, 2007 until January 20, 2008, the State Russian Museum in St. Petersburg hosted a solo exhibition of Ilana's work. With forty-seven paintings in eight galleries, the exhibition displayed works from different periods of Raviv’s oeuvre.A first of its kind for any native-born Israeli artist at such a prestigious Russian institution, the exhibition has further strengthened cultural ties between Israel and Russia, and represents an important milestone for international recognition of Israeli artists in general, and Israeli female artists in particular.
The museum’s invitation followed many years of work and exhibitions by the artist in museums and galleries in the United States, Europe, and Israel.
The exhibition was sponsored by the Israeli Embassy in Russia. Opening ceremony was hosted by the Israeli Ambassador to Russia, the Honorable Ms. Anna Azari.
Dr. Yevgenia Petrova, Deputy Director of Science, The State Russian Museum: "…Ilana Raviv is the first Israeli-born artist to exhibit a modern one-person show at the State Russian Museum... The St. Petersburg public admired the exhibition. "